Jeffrey D. Sadow is an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University Shreveport. If you're an elected official, political operative or anyone else upset at his views, don't go bothering LSUS or LSU System officials about that because these are his own views solely.
This publishes Sunday through Thursday with the exception of 7 holidays. Also check out his Louisiana Legislature Log especially during legislative sessions (in "Louisiana Politics Blog Roll" below).

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4.10.12

It’s not so much that it’s a matter of one hand of government not
knowing what the other is doing, but a complex interplay of genuine need and
political wants which explains why the state and City of New Orleans both are
building hospitals just miles from each other.

The state continues with its effort to build a brand new charity
hospital in New Orleans to replace the in-the-breach interim facility just west
of the building site. This new facility has faced
criticism over its size in a market already above the national average in beds
per thousand population (about 10 percent higher at 3) and consequent cost. Yet
simultaneously the city is building a facility in New Orleans East around the
site of the old Methodist Hospital, to be operated by a nonprofit religious
organization but governed and funded through the Orleans
Parish Hospital Service District A, a state-created entity but a component
of New Orleans.

The legal
structure of this district intends to operate a hospital as an enterprise,
without use of taxpayer funds other than a city payment to run it. To date, its
funding has come from grants or in-kind contributions and revenues from opening
an urgent care clinic. But the intent is for the creation of a full-service
hospital even though it would create even more beds in the New Orleans metropolitan
area and with 80 beds ridiculously over-bed New Orleans East at about 10 per
thousand. The compelling argument, claims the city, is that no emergency
services presently cover in the area without having to go over a major patch of
water – six traffic spans to the west to other New Orleans/Jefferson hospitals,
two east to the Slidell area, and one south to St. Bernard. Thus, potential
bottlenecks exist that could cost lives in an emergency situation.

3.10.12

It’s never too late to close the barn door after the horse has gotten
out, as some Louisiana legislators demonstrated again as part of approving the
details of new tax breaks established earlier this year.

Eventually, they went along with it, but only after grilling department
officials to ascertain that some kind of oversight would occur. These concerned
tax rebate agreements that could be offered to employers that would require their
approval after a review by an independent, third-party economist aimed at
making sure the state will get more tax revenue from the new jobs created than
the tax money lost with the credit.

2.10.12

Candidates for the open District 2 seat of the Louisiana Public Service Commission participated
in a forum where interesting questions arose about the operation of and service
on the PSC, also shedding light on a court case dealing with financing the
body, all of which help the public evaluate the PSC and its current or potential members.

One question concerned whether candidates for the office should accept
contributions for campaigning from utility companies, one of the kinds of firms
whose activities may be regulated by the PSC. The fronturnners called this
acceptable and said they had already taken such funds, while the also-rans,
none of whom to date have filed a campaign finance report implying they have
raised little money, said candidates should abjure from taking them.

But the problem with the latter approach is it unfairly restricts the
free speech rights of shareholders of those companies, while their special
interest opponents would face no barrier. And why single out utility companies
when others, like motor carriers, regulated by the PSC would face no ban? If a candidate
out of personal preference declines such funds, that’s his business, but mandating
that stricture puts the state in the position of tipping the scales against a
certain industry, as it already does in similar restrictions against gaming
concerns.

1.10.12

Has the New Orleans Times-Picayune
woken up and smelled the coffee? Who would have thought that apparently a
closet conservative lurked at what’s left of it? That’s the impression one gets
upon reading James
Varney’s first opinion piece, and, although the issue he brings up isn’t
exactly a burning one of the day, it’s interesting and deserves investigation.

Varney appears to have replaced the T-P’s
rotund, pale female true-believing liberal columnist, joining the retained relatively
thinner, dark male true-believing liberal one (and guest appearances seemingly
planned from the aged, pickled leftist curmudgeon) on its opinion roster –
which in and of itself is quite a statement. That balance now appears in the
offing for the paper’s assigned opinion writers shows that T-P management perceives in order to catch the eyeballs that have
begin deserting the printed word in droves, for the first time in decades it
might actually want to present on a regular basis arguments sympathetic to the
views of the majority in the metropolitan area, Louisiana, and in the country –
in full contradiction to its reliably liberal (if not the state media’s worst
offending) editorial page.

In his initial effort, Varney advances a question about why
conservative opinion journals seem rare around the area, concluding that he
doesn’t actually know why, only that digital offerings will increase access.
Well, after 30 years of writing conservative opinion pieces and having spent
about as long studying conservative philosophy in and out of the academy, some of
this in New Orleans and most of it in Louisiana, I can answer that for him.

30.9.12

The last
edition of this space criticized politicians who should know better in
attempting to insert more government into electric power regulation in
Louisiana. Perhaps the upcoming Public Service
Commission contest will present an opportunity for a winning candidate to
embrace the winning issue of less government intrusion.

In the past, there might have been a case for close scrutiny of government
in all aspects of this historically vertically integrated industry where
generation, transmission, and distribution were performed by single firms in
geographical areas where any competition faced tremendous entry costs. But the
monopolistic environment, thanks to technological advances, has become softened
at least on the distribution end, and to some degree on the generation side.
Now, as long as a concern isn’t too far away from transmission lines to one of the
three American power grids, as distribution becomes more and more deregulated in
allowing customers to choose which supplier provides power, there is greater incentive
to create generation capacity and plug it in, increasing choice further.

Unfortunately, Louisiana has yet to ride this wave of the future, until
recently having just a handful of firms, dominated by Entergy, generate,
transmit, and distribute power (although they have been able to buy and sell
power on a wholesale basis) as the only provider in varying geographical
regions. However, the first step to changing this occurred a few months ago
when the PSC authorized Entergy to join the Midwest
Independent Transmission System Operator Inc, with the specifics to be
worked out over the next few months. This consortium governs power transmission
in 13 states. Thus, the new member for the PSC from the open District 2 seat
that will be elected no later than Dec. 8 will participate in some big
decisions right off the bat.

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